Left-leaning websites have issued corrections after publishing a false story about U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota that was lifted from a parody news site, Business Insider reports.

ThinkProgress and Crooks and Liars fell for a story about Bachmann published on the parody site KCTV7 News. It falsely claimed that Bachmann had sought so-called "Americanization facilities" for immigrants who were crossing the border illegally.
"Yeah, I got pwned," wrote Crooks and Liars poster Karoli in a mea culpa posted on Sunday.

"How sad is it that it was just this side of realistic enough to believe in the first place," she wrote. "When you have a reputation for making outrageous and ridiculous comments, it becomes easier and easier to believe something that should have been dismissed out of hand. Live and learn."

Making the fakery even more confounding, KCTV7 reportedly found and lifted much of the Bachmann parody at another humorous site, National Report, which had published it weeks ago. That satire site bills itself as "independent."

Also duped by the story was the liberal site, the Daily Kos, noted Raw Story, which first reported on the snowballing hoax.

"I'm calling on all of us, Obama and Congress and everyone, to chip in and build special new facilities . . . 'Americanization facilities,' if you will," the fake story, which was corrected by complete strike-through on Sunday by ThinkProgress, quoted Bachmann as saying.

"And we'd send these kids to these facilities, in Arizona and Texas and wherever else," the fake story read. "And we'd get private sector business leaders to locate to those facilities and give these children low-risk jobs to do. And they'd learn about the American way of life, earn their keep, and everyone wins in the end."

Noted ThinkProgress in its correction: "The news site KCTV7 News is a parody. Rep. Bachmann (R-MN) never made the statement. We sincerely regret the error."